NANO SATELLITE

A faction of 54 engineering students from the city has intended a 10-kg nano satellite to monitor greenhouse gases (GHG) that the Indian space agency is scheduling to open in April.

The students from the SRM University, some 40 km from the capital city, have been working on the project 'SRMSAT' since 2008. The satellite of weight 10 kg is being developed under the direction of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at a cost of Rs.1 crore.

With weather change becoming a cause of serious concern globally, the satellite will monitor GHG - mainly CO2 in the atmosphere. A grating spectrometer is in employment for monitoring earth-based sources and sinks of anthropogenic and natural sources of GHG.

12 students from disciplines of engineering in the university have been working closely with the ISRO to develop the nano satellite.

A nano satellite is one that weighs less than, or identical to, 10 kg.

"The satellite is planned for start on in April this year with ISRO's Megatropics G satellite. We have signed a communication of understanding with the national space agency for the mission," M. Loganathan, former ISRO scientist who is banner the team, told IANS on the sideline of the current Indian Science Congress at the SRM University campus here.
The ISRO said the satellite has to be tested before it can be included as a freight.

The students have been wholly concerned in the mission, right from procuring components to assembling and testing the satellite.

clearing up the initial troubles they faced, Sarwesh Narayaan, a mechanical engineering student, told IANS: "It was difficult to converse technically as we all come from different disciplines of engineering, but we did overcome it as each of us had to understand the concepts of all the other disciplines before manipulative the project."

"All of us are multi-tasking, and an electrical engineers learner in the group is also familiar with the concepts of mechanical, aerospace, electrical communication engineering. We have been solving each others' trouble," Guruditya Singh, a last year student, told IANS.

It's the team spirit that keeps this group of 51 men and 3 women students going.